One of Coca-Cola’s ‘Biggest Suppliers’ Bans Animal Tests After PETA Appeal

Previously, Ingredion Incorporated Force-Fed Rats Feces, Broke Mice’s Necks, and Injected Animals With Carcinogens—All of Which Is Now Ended

For Immediate Release:
November 11, 2019

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Following communications with PETA, Ingredion Incorporated—a leading global ingredients provider with net annual sales of $6 billion and “one of The Coca-Cola Company’s biggest suppliers of corn syrup”—has instituted a new policy banning all experiments on animals for basic research and to establish health or nutritional claims for marketing ingredients, none of which is required by law.

The company previously funded or donated to numerous animal tests, including ones in which experimenters force-fed mice vitamin D, suffocated them to death or broke their necks, and drained their blood; fed rats corn starch with or without antibiotics and force-fed them feces; fed rats corn starch and injected them with a chemical that induces colorectal cancer; and fed genetically modified mice a high– or low–glycemic index diet, starved them, injected them with glucose and insulin, cut open the veins in their tails, and repeatedly bled them. At the experiments’ end, all the animals were killed and dissected.

“Coca-Cola drinkers will now be able to taste the feeling of cruelty-free ingredients, thanks to Ingredion’s sweet decision to ban hideous animal tests,” says PETA Vice President Shalin Gala. “PETA is urging other food and beverage companies to follow Ingredion’s compassionate, business-savvy example and kick unreliable and cruel animal tests to the curb.”

Ingredion joins a growing list of dozens of companies—including Robertet S.A., Barilla, The Coca-Cola Company, General Mills, House Foods, Kellogg Company, Kikkoman, Lipton, Ocean Spray, PepsiCo, POM Wonderful, Welch’s, and Yakult Honsha—that have worked with PETA scientists to adopt new policies banning animal tests and instead using more effective, ethical, and economical animal-free research models.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.